Signing the Shema
The Shema is a central prayer in Judaism. It’s part of every service. For some families, it’s a bedtime ritual. Some people say or hope to say the Shema with their dying breath. “It’s been a watchword of Jewish peoplehood, of Jewish communal observance, for thousands of years,” said Rabbi Darby Leigh, of Kerem Shalom, a congregation in Concord, Massachusetts. “It binds us to expressions of Judaism throughout time and space,” Rabbi Leigh continued.
“Hear, oh Israel,” the prayer begins (or so it is often translated into English). “Israel,” here (pun acknowledged), means the Jewish people. But not all Jews can do what the Shema seems to ask. Some people, including Rabbi Leigh, who shared his American Sign Language (ASL) translation of the Shema in a RitualWell.org video posted to YouTube, are Deaf.
In a Zoom interview in March 2024, I asked Rabbi Leigh if he feels excluded by the frequent translation of the Shema so as to refer to physical hearing. (He understood my oral speech through Zoom’s closed captions, by watching my face, and with some auditory input from hearing aids, he said.)
“I don’t take it personally,” he said. “I think it’s a little bit of intellectual laziness. I think most hearing people don’t know that they are hearing people, that is, most hearing people are not aware that there’s an entire community…of people who don’t hear: the Deaf community.”
Pay a little more attention and one realizes that even in English, the words “listen” and “hear” often refer to something other than taking in auditory information, Rabbi Leigh noted.
“‘Listen up’ often means ‘pay attention to me,’” Rabbi Leigh continued. “It means ‘give me focus.’ ‘Give me your awareness.’ ‘Direct your consciousness in this direction.’” The meaning of shema in the prayer of that name, Rabbi Leigh believes, also goes beyond the ears and physical hearing. “I translate shema [as] ‘pay attention’ [in ASL] because that’s exactly what I think the text is asking us to do.”
The idea that the Shema refers specifically to listening with the ears excludes Deaf people, Rabbi Leigh added. “I understand Judaism to be an inclusive community that embraces all, from the water drawer to the woodchopper, all of us, as part of this community, and I cannot imagine for a moment that a piece of Torah would be used to explicitly exclude a percentage of already one of the smallest peoples that we have on this Earth,” he said.
I learned that shema can be interpreted into ASL as “pay attention” when reporting on ASL-interpreted services in late 2023. Back then, I thought this meant that ASL interpreters were “changing” the prayer’s words to better fit a Deaf audience. The idea of language adjusting to the sensory world of its speakers struck me as very cool. But signing shema as “pay attention” isn’t actually a change, according to certified sign-language interpreter Bram Weiser, who coordinates ASL-interpreted services and events at Manhattan’s Town & Village Synagogue (T&V). Instead, it’s one of many valid interpretations of what the original Hebrew word means in the context of the prayer itself and of ASL interpretation for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
Weiser, who emphasizes that he speaks only for himself as an individual interpreter, spoke with Lilith about interpreting the Shema and related topics.
APT: Another ASL interpreter told me that when she interprets the Shema into ASL, she changes the word from “hear” to a sign that means “pay attention.” Can you talk about what’s happening behind that choice?
BW: You said here that you thought shema was “to hear,” and it is “to hear,” but that is an English translation of the Hebrew word. It’s not the Hebrew word. So the question is, what does the Hebrew word mean? Can it be summed up in just “to hear”? Or are other things really at play here? Would one or more of them be more effective for an interpretation to a Deaf audience than any of the others?
So I would not say I’m changing the text. I’m trying to delve into what it means. So what does shema mean?
As I’m sure you know, Torah has been interpreted by rabbis over the centuries. But does that mean that’s it, that all it can mean is just what this commentator says or that this rabbi says? No, not necessarily, because we are still continuing to reinterpret the text, as people. It’s not like the meaning that’s presented in English is the final decision.
Someone can say “hear, oh Israel,” because they take shema to literally mean “to hear.” But shema doesn’t necessarily only mean “to hear,” that you must use your ears to take in this directive that I’m about to give. We understand it to mean, “Hey, guys, listen up, pay attention to what I’m about to tell you.” And perhaps one could say for a Deaf audience, it isn’t necessarily about something that comes through the ears. It could be information that you are to take in because I’m telling you something important. That can, I think, be one way of saying what shema means.
APT: When you are interpreting services, do you also sign “pay attention” for shema?
BW: We can have something like this, to attend to something. [Weiser made a sign like this, the same one used for “pay attention.”] Or it could be shoulder taps. “Hey guys! Look over here!” I could do one of several different things. And yes, I would be offering literally an interpretation of the text, which I understand to be an effective corollary or match for what it means in Hebrew. That’s my goal. I don’t want to make something up. I want to give what I understand the text to be saying and what the context is. So yes, if it were me up there, and it has been me up there at times, I would not be going “listen with your ears.” I’d be saying “Hey, guys, pay attention, look over here. I want to tell you something.” I would go with that kind of meaning for that sentence in that moment because of what it means and its purpose and where it came from and what it’s meant to be saying as I understand it.
Now there could be a different way to say it. One can modify the interpretation because while the Hebrew’s frozen, as I mentioned before, the ASL really isn’t. There’s not been a single set way to sign the Shema, much as there’s not a single set way to say amen. There’s at least three or four different ways I can think of right off the top of my head to sign that depending on what is the best fit for the Deaf congregants you’re signing to and what they feel most comfortable with. All mean amen, but how you get there is different.
APT: Can you think of any other cases that might be particularly interesting?
BW: At T&V, we interpret Purim night, usually, and we will have an interpreter signing the Megillah, along with the readers behind them or alongside, and when Haman’s name is said, the interpreters will show that there’s a lot of noise and visual things going on and not worry about the sound as being the point but more about drowning out the name. Some visual ruckus is taking place to drown out the name which has just been signed.
APT: And what about the shofar?
What T&V has done for the past few years when we interpret Rosh Hashanah in the morning is we bring a shofar blower to the front of the pews and we invite the Deaf congregants to come forward and lay their hands on the shofar as it’s being blown to touch it, to feel the vibrations. So even though the sound per se isn’t received in the same way by a Deaf congregant, if they have no hearing ability, nonetheless, the event is still accessible. They are still accessing the sound, the vibrations, directly and in a way that’s relevant for them, we hope.
APT: At the beginning of the Amidah, we say “Adonai, open up my lips that my mouth may declare Your praise”— it occurred to me that one might also be trickier.
BW: Different interpreters will handle that in different ways. Some may go literal. Some might do something different. But the underlying point, hopefully, will still be there. Often what I’ve done is show the literal meaning, “God open up my lips and speak.” But then I’ll add something about “open up my hands to sign.” I will show both things. Because it’s a Deaf audience that I’m reaching, I want it to be relevant for them.
So what is the point of opening up the lips, opening the mouth? To speak the prayer that you want God to hear. That’s the literal meaning. You want that to be a spoken transmission of prayer. Okay, fine. What’s a corollary for that for a Deaf congregant? Now some Deaf people I know do use their voice. That’s fine. Not everybody does. But what would possibly be a better fit, a more effective fit that could also be relevant for a Deaf congregant? Open up the hands to sign. Say, “God, open my lips to speak, open my hands to sign so my prayer can be accepted.”
In this context, whether this prayer comes through the mouth, whether it comes through the signing hands, doesn’t really matter. Interpreters will choose different approaches to get the message across. To me, it’s about “what is the source of the message?” Where’s it coming from? It’s coming from the mouth. Is that it? Now where else could it come from? Well, the hands. So let’s present both of them.
—Ashley P. Taylor is a journalist, writer, and teacher in New York City. Ashley’s interests include science, Judaism and Jewish life, and disability and accessibility. Find more of her work at http://ashleyptaylor.com.
